Knitting-machine.



'No. 747,988. PATENTED DEC. 29. 1903.

G. A. LEIGHTON.

KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION NLRB 0011, 1902. no MODEL. 7 a sums-sum 1.

w 351 #M M N 5y I @Z No. 747,988. PATENTED DEC. 29,1903. G. A. LEIGHTON.

KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED O O T. 1, 1902.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-$HEBT 2. I

No. 747,988. PATENTED DEC. 29, 1903..

' G. A. LEIGHTON.

KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLIQATION FILED 0011, 1902. N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET a.

wl cesses: m I n 6919607 Q1; 4. 6.... f r -ix? UNITED STATES Patented Iijcember 29, 1903.

P TENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. LEIGHTON, OF MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO L'EIGHTON MACHINE COMPANY, OF MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

MACHINE.

sPEcImc'AmIcN forming part of Letters Patent N 747,988; dated December 29, 1903. Application filed October 1, 1 02. serial No. 126.465. (No model.)

To all whom it may] concern: g

Be it known that I, GEORGE AQLEIGHTON,

a citizen of the United States, residingat Manchester, in the county of Hillsboro and State of'New Hampshire, have inventedan Improvement in Knitting-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with theaccompanyingdrawings,isaspecification, like characters onthe drawings representing like parts.

This invention. in knitting machines has for its object the production of a knittingmachine by which to knit the novel knittedrib pile fabric described in United States Patent No. 693,409, granted to me February 18, 1902. The fabric described and shown in said patent .is composed of difierent threads, some of which are manipulated .or inter-knitted to form a rib fabric, while another thread or threads are interknitted with the rib fabric to present a series of knitted wales'at one side thereof, lying between the knitted wales of the ribbed fabric. To produce this fabric in one good way, I have taken a circular-knit ting machine having a series of cylinderneedles and a series of dial-needles and have applied thereto between the dial-needle bed and the cylinder-needle bed acon'ical needlebed containing a third series of needles, shown as of the latched variety, and a conical shell having suitable cams to actuate said third series of needles. The third series of latchneedles are for inter-knitting the pile-thread into the rib-knitted fabric, and they cross diagonally the paths of movement of both the dial and cylinder needles and take thread from a thread-guide located within the space hounded" by the cylinder-needles, inter-knitting said thread with the rib-knitted fabric made by the dial and cylinder needles, lcaving;- the pile-thread on one side of the ribbed fabric in the form ofloops arranged in wales between the wales of the rib-knitted fabric.

Prior to this invention a pile fabric has been knitted on ii. knitting-machine containing cylinder and dial needles of the latched variety having cobperatingwith them ase ries of hooks arranged and movable wholly outside the cylinder-needles, said hooks, actuated bya proper cam, taking an extra thread from a t-hread-guide'located wholly outside i the circle of cylinder-needles, drawing said thread over the dial-needles back of their latches, an'd'interlacing said thread with alternate wales of the fabric being knittedon the cylinder and dial needles, said thread not No. 603,164. So, also, a pile fabric has been knitted on cylinder and dial needles, and a series of loopers or jacks, have pushed the pile-thread outside the path of movement of the cylinder-needles, so that said pile-thread is caught over some of said cylinder-needles and is incorporated with the rib-knitted fabric, said pile-thread being laid in a substantially straight line at one side'said ribknitted fabric and beingheld thereto between loops of the'rib-knitted wales, as in United States Patent No'. 561,558, dated June 9, 1896.

In the machine to be herein described the pile-thread is interknitted as a web and incorporated with one side of the rib' knitted fabric, and consequently the thread to constitute the pile when being teazled is not drawn out of the rib-knitted fabric, but is retained therein, due chiefly to. the fact of said pile-thread being inter-knitted with itself and with the rib-knitted fabric.

It will be understood that my invention may be incorporated with any machine having,cylinder and dial needles;-bnt I have chosen herein to illustrate my invention as added to a rib-knitting machine such as described in United States Patent No. 720,514, February 10, 1903, application Serial No. 38,603, Avery B. Dodge and John H. Rice.-

Figure 1, in plan View, illustrates a suflicient portion of the knitting-machine described in said application with my improvements added to enable my invention to be understood. Fig. i is a vertical section in the line m, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan viewof the dial-needle bed and the shell and conical bed for the third'series of needles, said parts being removed from the machine. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 3, the cams of the shell being represented by dot-ted lines.

The head A, the circular bed-plate'A', the

. driving-shaft A "are and may be all as having 'a bevel-pinion A engaging teeth at the under side,of the dialneedle cam :plate A, having usual cams by which to actuate the dialneedles a sustained in a dial-needle bed B, mounted on the circular bed-plate, the ring B, carrying the sc-called knock-over steels a (shown best in Figs. 3 and 4.) for knocking the loops over the heads of the dial-needles, the bevelgear B engaging bevel-teeth of said ring B, the holding-ring B attached to the bed-plate by suitable screws and sustaining said ring the yoke '8, carried by the dial-needle cam-plate and sustaining the spindlelB on which is fixed the cylinder-needle cam-hub 13 having suitable cams for'actuating the cylinder-needlesh, the cylinder-needle bed 0, suitably grooved to receive the cylinder-needles, the supporting-ring G for sustaining said needle -cyiinder, and the two threadguides b for supplying thread to the cylin pier and dial needles for knitting a'rib fabric nection with the machine illustrated in said application. Fig. 1 of the present drawings shows some parts common to said application and fully described therein for the produc-" tion. automatically at the desired points in the circular web being knitted of welt and tuck stitches, said figure also showing means instrumentalin controlling automatically the length of stitch ofthe cylinder-needles. I

- will now describe specifically the parts invented by me and applied to this well-known type of rib-knitting machine.

I have attached to the under side of the bedplate A and the head a suitable support D, that receives the base'of the conical needlebed D, said base beingshown as threaded to receive adjusting devices D D shown as threaded rings, whereby said bed may be adjusted vertically as required and be held in adjusted position for knitting, means, as a key a Fig. 2, being employed to prevent vany turning of said needle-bed in its support. The inner side of the bed D has lugs 6 that cooperate with usual lugs b secured to the exterior of the needle-cylinder C, so that the rotation of said needle-cylinder is prevented and yet the work being knitted is free to pass between said lugs in usual manner and be carried from the machine by any usual take-up. The conical bed D is grooved for the reception of a third series of latched needles c, and said needles are actuated by cams carried by a conical shell D the interior of which contacts with the exterior of said cona lug 19 that is engaged by a projection b'j,

extended downwardly from the ring-gear B rotated in unison with the dial-needle camplate.

Referring to Fig. 4:, 3 represents theliftingfully described in' con- 7 tion is the usual one of rib-knitting.

cam for the third series of needles, and 4 the drawing-down cam, it having usual provision for adjustment to provide for any desired length of stitch.

To provide the third series of needles 0 with the pile-thread to be interknitted as elescribed and applied to the rib-knitted fabric formed by the cylinder and dial needles, I have added a thread-guide d. The threadguides referred to will be supplied with threads of suitable character in usual manner.

Assuming that the guides b" have suitable threads to supply the cylinder and dial neeand that the guide (1 has a third thread for use in the formation of a pile, the machine may be started to knit. The cylinder-needles are started upward by the usual needleelevating cam, and as they are raised in the loops surrounding them said loops turn back the latches, and the needles finally rise far enough in the rotation of the cam-cylinder to cause their open hooks to engage a thread at one of the thread-guides b, and thereafter said needles are drawn down by the cylinderneedle-drawing-down cam. As the cylinderneedles aredrawn down they draw the thread engaged by them over the dial-needles and across their open latches. After the cylinderneedlesin their descent have drawn the thread engaged by them over the open latches of the dial-needles the latter n'eedles,held forward at such time, are drawn back, and the loops on the dial-needles back of said open latches-act to turn said latches and close them on the hooks, so that the threads laid across said open latches are engaged by the hooks of the dial-needles and drawn through the loops then on said dial-needles, and, finally,

-dles for knitting rib fabric with two feeds for rib-knitting the dial-needles are drawn back far enough to enable the knocking-off steels to knock off from said needles the loops thereon of a previous course. This opera- To intel-knit into the rib-knitted fabric the pile or other thread taken from the guide d,the cams of the shell D act on the butts of the series of needles 0 and lift them as said needles appreach the guide (I, said'guide being distant from a thread-guide 1), say, about ninety degrees, more or less. \Vhen the series of pileknittiug needles are elevated. to take the pilethread, the cylinder-needles next them are drawn down, and the dial-needles occupy such position as to enable the needles 0 after they have taken the thread to be drawn down between the dial-needles and lay the pilethread across said needlesin the form of loops, and, finally, said needles 0 as they are fully drawn down, have their latches closed by loops thereon deposited ataprevio us course of knitting, so that said needles 0 act terknit the pile-thread with itself and leave knitted wales lying in rows at one face of the rib-knitted fabric, said wales appearing between adjacent usual knitted wales of the needles.

rib-knitted fabric. The dial-needles, as described, occupy a forward position (see Fig. 1) when the pile-needles c are being drawn down, and it will be supposed that said needles have on their open latches a loop of thread, as previously described, and held by the hooks of the cylinder-needles, and these dial-needles, also opposite the thread-guide d, have laid over their open latches the pile thread, so that said dial-needles in their forward position have two loops. The dialneedlesin the further movement of the machine are moved farther forward until the loops crossing their open latches are passed behind the latches, and the hooks of said dial-needles are supplied with yarn by the hooks of the descending cylinder-needles, as previously described, and the dial-needles are then fully drawn back to cast both loops thereon over the heads of said dial- This actioniinclosesthe pile-th read between loops of rib-knittedfabric, and the loops of pile-thread are interknitted with each other and left in wales between wales of rib-knitted fabric, as fully described in said Patent No. 693,409. To provide fol-throwing the dial-needles forward that they may be in proper position to enable the pile-thread to be laid across their open latches, as stated, I have attached to the dial-needle camplate a cam 8, (see Fig. 1,) that acts on thebutts of the dial-needles to thrust them forward in a position that the thread laid in their books at the guide I) may act to'open the latches, and to prevent said dial needles from being moved too far I have applied a needle-guard against the outer edge of which the butts of the dial needles strike and by which they are held in proper position.

Believing myself to be the first to provide a machine by which to interknit pile-thread, as described,at one side of a rib-knitted fabric. and having shown one practical way of doing this, I desire to say that I am free to use any form of means capable of actuating the third set of latched needles for controlling the pile-thread so long as said means interloops the pile-thread with itself and forms wales thereof at one side of said ribknitted fabric, and consequently my invention is herein claimed broadly.

I It will be understood that the third series of needles work in a path diagonal to the path of reciprocationof both the dialand cylinder needles, and said third'series of needles in their reciprocation cross the paths of reciprocation ofboth thedial and cylinder-needles.

from thread-guide located as usual, and the third series of needles is supplied with thread from independent thread-guides d.

I have shown the third 'set of needles located at substantially forty-live degreesinclinat-ion to the horizontal needles; but it will be understood that this invention is not limited; to such angle, as the angle may be changed and yet accomplish the results herein aimed at. Furthermore, it will beunderstood that the machine will be provided with any number of feeds and corresponding numbers of sets of cams to operate the dial and cylinder needles. i

Having described my invention, what I claim asnew, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

l. In' a knitting-machine,a series of cylin-.

der and dial needles, means to actuate the said needles to take thread and form from the same a rib-knitted fabric, and means to engage a third or pile thread and interknit the same to form a series of connected courses of wales at one face of the rib-knitted fabric, said wales lying substantially parallel with the rib-knitted Wales.

2. In a knitting-machine, a series of cylinder and dial needles, means to actuate them, a-thread-guide-tofeed said needles, athird setof needles, to actuate them in a path diagonal to the pat-hsof reciprocation of said cylinderand dial needles,and suitablethreadguides to supply thread to said third series of'needles.

3. In a knittingmachine, a series of cylinder and dial needles, means to actuate them, a third series of needles, a thread-guide for said-series ofv'needles, means to move the needles of said third series of needles in position to take thread andinterknit the same and form wales of loops, means to temporarily move the dial-needles forward at-about the position occupied by the threadguide for supplying said third series of needles, that said dial-needles may cause the thread used in the production of the ri'b-knittedfabric to embrace between the loops of its wales the thread supplied to the'hooksof said third series of needles. i

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE A. LEIGHTON.

Witnesses: i

SAME-H. LAVERY, SHERMAN E. BUBROUGHS.

Correction in Letters Patent No. 747,988.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 747,988, granted December 29, 1903, upon the application of George 'A. Leighton, of Manchester, New Hampshireffor an improvement in Knitting Machines, an error appears in the printed specification requiring correction, as follows: On page 3, in iine 88, before the Words to actuate the word riieans should be inserted; and that. the said Letters Patent should be read withthis'correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in thePatent Oflice.

Signed and sealed this12th day of J anuary, A. 1)., 1904.

[SEAL] F. I. ALLEN,

Commissioner of Patents. 

